Asus is making a bigger name for itself in the mobile market
with a wide range of mobile devices ranging from 11.1" ultra-light
notebooks to 17" desktop replacements. The company showed off two of its
newer offerings today at Computex.

First up is a model that many of you are already familiar
with thanks to the FCC.
The R1 is Asus' first entry into the Tablet PC market and features a 13.3"
glossy widescreen display. Asus didn't skimp on the features either with
support for Intel Core Duo T2300, T2400, T2500 and T2600 processors, DVD
burner, modular drive bay to support an additional battery, GbE, an ExpressCard
slot and biometric security. Hard drive options include 80GB, 100GB and 120GB
offerings.

Also on the show floor was the new R2 UMPC. While Sony went
for a more untraditional approach with a smallish 4.5" display
which makes it harder to read text and higher resolutions, Asus has decided to
stick with Microsoft's recommendation of a 7" WXGA screen. The R2 also
packs a standard GPS module to make on-the-go tracking a cinch, 20/30/40/60GB
hard drive options, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR a built-in 1.3MP webcam. Asus is
also working to extract more battery life out of its UMPC. Poor battery life
has been one of the many criticisms leveled against the Samsung Q1 which is
already available in stores. Asus is confident that it can push the R1H's
battery life out to greater than 2 hours.

Although pricing is not definite on either model, Asus
expects for the R1 to retail for around $2,000 while the R2 will come it at
just under $1,000 in base form when it is released in Q3.

"So, I think the same thing of the music industry. They can't say that they're losing money, you know what I'm saying. They just probably don't have the same surplus that they had." -- Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA